’69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez’ Review: Tekashi 6ix9ine Documentary

Many working artists have exploited the instruments of social media to craft their fame, however Tekashi 6ix9ine — aka Danny Hernandez — exists inside them. The Bushwick-born 24-year-old rapper and Instagram movie star spent the final 5 years eking out probably the most provocative and disturbing profession in fashionable music, although extra individuals can acknowledge his aggressive face tattoos and rainbow-colored hair than any of his compositions. A convicted felon who flaunts his criminality in record-breaking Instagram Lives, grotesque sexual deviance, and just about the rest it takes to seize most eyeballs, Hernandez could also be a misplaced trigger buried below indignant posturing and a blaring soundtrack. Even a few of his hip hop followers assume he’s a traitor who snitched to the FBI to keep away from extra jail time. However all that noise has stored him within the public eye. Within the strategy of eluding the justice system and upsetting the majority of the Web that doesn’t enjoyment of his infamy, he thrives on its rage.

As a homegrown persona who tells his personal story, Hernandez defies any try to grasp his essence past the boundaries of his act. That makes “’69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez,” director Vikram Gandhi’s unnerving deep-dive into his topic’s rise, one thing of a misplaced trigger from the outset. But whilst his topic stays elusive, Gandhi manages to ship a considerate primer on the Tekashi story because it at present stands, and provides this serial troublemaker the tragic documentary he deserves.

“’69” was produced in secret and dropped on Hulu as a shock, which is sensible since Hernandez likes to regulate his personal narrative and would doubtless have obfuscated this sobering strategy to his life prematurely of its launch. It’s apparent from the outset that Gandhi can’t get entry by means of probably the most quick channels, because the film begins with an interview outdoors the Brooklyn condo interrupted by residents shouting him off the scene. However there’s sufficient remnants of Hernandez’s story strewn all through the neighborhood for Gandhi, who narrates the following overview, to select up the items.

Whereas they don’t reveal a lot new info, the investigation helps make clear the underlying hustle behind the stunts: A primary-generation Mexican-American raised by a single mom, surrounded by gang life and socioeconomic nervousness from his childhood, Hernandez’s rapid-fire transformation into Tekashi comes throughout as a determined survival act. “’69” unfolds by means of a number of dramatic chapter headings to indicate how an alienated neighborhood child shortly discovered his calling in viral stardom. From “Danny the Bodega Boy” by means of “The Troll,” every passage of the film offers a clear-eyed account of the way in which Hernandez discovered his assaultive goal. I

t begins along with his sexually express do-it-yourself clothes resonating on Reddit, and continues by means of his alarming bodily transformation and in a single day success within the unusual enviornment of “Soundcloud Rap.” Gandhi zips by means of the weird circuitous path to Tekashi’s world stardom, together with his unusual reputation in Slovakia and the development of his confrontational “Gummo” video, which matches a lot additional than its Concord Korine-directed namesake in showcasing the performative outrage of an ostracized scene. The success of “Gummo” led to a rush of recent Tekashi content material, and social media feuds galore, however behind all of the likes and consumer engagement, a darker storm took form.

Gandhi tracks a lot of Hernandez’s profession by means of insights from individuals who have labored with him at key junctures, neighborhood buddies, and even his tattoo artist with a dizzying, energetic aptitude. However the tone of “’69” shifts into true crime territory as Hernandez enters extra bleak developments, beginning with Hernandez’s resolution to put up an underage lady having intercourse and persevering with by means of his involvement in neighborhood robberies to handle mounting feuds. Snagged by the FBI after his undocumented driver caved to stress from ICE, Hernandez appeared to lastly attain his comeuppance in a much-ballyhooed court docket scene that culminated, in a jarring type of cultural serendipity, with the day of Trump’s impeachment. However that second (which included Hernandez’s long-lost father making an emotional look for the cameras) proved much less climatic than transitionary, because it enabled Hernandez to solidify the monstrous picture he’d been chasing all alongside.

Whereas assembling these particulars into an absorbing character research, Gandhi by no means sanitizes his topic. The film’s most troubling voice comes from Hernandez’s ex-girlfriend Sara Molina, talking from an undisclosed location, the place she affords frank testimonials about his abusive habits and disinterest within the daughter they’d collectively of their teenagers. None of that is information, however it helps elucidate the underlying drawback with any try and have a good time Hernandez’s artistic inclinations. Regardless of the catchiness of some beats, Hernandez was finally simply chasing the dream of Technology Me — “I simply needed to make a loud presence,” he says in a single interview clip — however he ultimately grew to become its worst nightmare: a supervillain not solely elevated by his misdeeds however outlined by them. “I don’t even know if it is a joke anymore,” Hernandez says in court docket, however since then, he’s been compelled to have the final chortle.

In his 2011 documentary “Kumaré,” Gandhi portrayed a pretend guru and managed to achieve real followers within the course of. With Hernandez, he’s discovered a real charlatan who has taken that rip-off to epic heights. It’s no grand stretch to see the connection between Hernandez’s model of trolling and Trumpism. “’69” doesn’t overplay that connection, however it grounds the drama within the immediacy of its second.

Regardless of these big-picture takeaways, “’69” has an unsteady goal, and typically struggles to fuse its deeper observations with the sheer harrowing trajectory of its topic’s story. At occasions, Gandhi’s strategy proves extra irritating than illuminating, with the eerie, pulsating rating and stern interview topics settling right into a dismaying whir. Gandhi falls again on the first-person strategy to fill within the gaps and seize his personal contradictory relationship to the undertaking (at one level he feels “deep sympathy” for Hernandez, then wonders if he’s “fallen into the entice of a troll”) however these observations are self-evident from the beginning.

But “’69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez” manages to put out the fragments of the Tekashi story properly sufficient to forged a beneficial highlight on the character of his fame. No one paperwork Tekashi higher than Tekashi himself, however there’s a a lot bigger system in play that enabled that elementary reality to take maintain. Gandhi diagnoses the issue, however makes it clear there’s no answer in sight. He’s made a compelling behind-the-scenes window into fairly the abrasive story, whereas leaving the impression that it’s nonetheless locked in a fragile, hopeless first act.

Grade: B

“’69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez” is now streaming on Hulu.

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